Awesome Amphibians

We went for a dander recently and found some interesting little animals..

Lots of frog spawn

a little froglet

and Northern Irelands only species of newt, the smooth newt..

In breeding colours.. apologies for the last pic being blurry but these animals are protected and we needed to get it back in the water asap..so couldn't hang around getting perfect pictures!

New Mora Companion Hi Viz, special edition.

There's another new Mora coming out soon, a completely orange version of the companion, you shouldn't loose this one in the woods!!

Red Dead Nettle

This is a lovely little plant and one of the first blooming spring flowers. It's relatively common and although the name makes it sound like it's similar to stinging nettle, it really is quite different.

it's got lovely little pinky red flowers and purplish leaves and is often found along hedgerows and roadside banks.

It is edible at all stages of it's life though as with most wild flowers it has less of a bitter taste when young, but it's one of the better wild edibles as it doesn't really get too bitter as it gets older.

 

It's also sometimes called Red Archangel and the folklore behind this is that the Archangel Michael fought a war with the fallen angels and was cut by one of their lances, as his blood fell to earth this flower bloomed where it fell.. It's also good for staunching wounds and maybe this is why!!

Problems with LOWA Boots

I love my lowa's, well I used to. After the winter, when I normally wear Muck boots, I break out my Lowa's for the spring, but look what happened to them when I took them out of the cupboard

both boots had perished along the heel

and you can see by the tread that they haven't been worn that much!

I've heard of this happening before with other types of boots, but when you spend serious money on your footwear you expect them to last.. I wont be buying Lowa's again!

Birch Bark Ribbons

This is an easy way to collect one of natures best fire lighters, but it requires you to find large trees in relatively exposed locations

as you can see this is a tall birch in just such a location

what tends to happen is the prevailing winds whip up little pieces of bark which then get pushed round the tree onto the leeward side. These are known as 'Ribbons' of birch bark.

and if you leave it for a couple of months you can get vast amounts of birch bark for virtually no effort, just pick it all off the leeward side of the tree..

Although trees in such perfect placements are hard to find, when you do get them you can fill your tinder pouch with birch bark ribbons easily and quickly.

Look after your Ferro Rod

It's one of your most important bushcraft items, but do you know how easily they degrade in water or if kept in a damp environment?

just seven days in a damp environment produced a ferro rod like this

that's a serious amount of corrosion

however, luckily, if you catch it in time the corrosion tends to be not as bad as it looks and can be scraped off and the rod used as normal, but I wouldn't like to find it after a month of neglect.